SPOTLIGHT: Soap Opera Catfights

Posted by
Michael Goldberg

When I think about what I have enjoyed about soaps over the years, what comes to mind are love stories like Cliff and Nina from All My Children, Cruz and Eden from Santa Barbara, and Steve and Kayla from Days of our Lives.

There were the close family ties of the Bauers on Guiding Light, the Hughes family in As The World Turns, and even now the Hortons, who are still front and center on Days of our Lives.

I have loved having the chance to watch characters grow and change over the years, such as Rachel on Another World, Barbara on As the World Turns, and Viki on One Life to Live.

But then, I think about something else I have always delighted in, and began to feel a bit guilty.

Is it wrong to like a good old fashioned catfight? You know what I’m talking about. Two female characters hate each other so much, they can’t resist the urge to go at each other until there is only one left standing.

As much joy as they bring me, and they are certainly a staple of soaps, I'm left wondering if they are degrading to women. The fact that they are generally fighting over a man, certainly adds a touch of misogyny to the equation

Below are some of my favorite rumbles from the past. Should I feel guilty for enjoying these epic battles? I would love to know what you think.

Is this harmless entertainment? Or an example of how women are treated poorly in our society? Sound off below!

7 comments:

The best catfight ever was between Constance Ford and Jeanne Cooper in the prison cult classic movie House of Women. ;)

Are there any older examples? The term has been around for a long time but most of my catfight memories start in the '80s.

Hard to top the epic Generations catfight.

Web series DeVanity pulled off something interesting, the male catfight. When you see Jason DeVanity and Andrew Regis arguing by a swimming pool, you know they are about to go at it, Krystle v. Alexis style. You don't thing of the brooding hunks throwing punches, you think Dynasty and a catfight.

When it comes to male catfights, we're now starting to see some on soaps between two gay men who have been circulating in each other's orbit long enough for them to know the score on one another, yet they've never been romantically involved themselves.

My favorite one of these so far was the December 2013 scratchfest between Ste Hay and John Paul McQueen on HOLLYOAKS. It had all the classic elements of your typical catfight, especially since they can both catalog one another's history of romantic (and other) failures over the years. And like many catfights, it had an element of humor with some villagers laughing over it while others 'valiantly' tried to come to the rescue .. lol!